1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to transmission control of operation rights of shared application programs when a plurality of terminals sharing the application program perform a cooperative work.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a plurality of terminals connected to each other via a network, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, share application programs and cooperatively operate to perform a cooperative work between users of the terminals, in order to assure the consistency in operation and state, the application programs are individually provided with operation rights and exclusion control of operations by users of the terminals is effected using the operation rights.
An operation right is provided for each of application programs shared by a plurality of terminals, and is transmitted in accordance with an operation of a user to effect a work. For example, in the system shown in FIG. 1, for a shared application program A, only one of application programs A 11, 21, . . . , n1 has an operation right at any point of time, and only a user of the application program which has the operation right can perform an operation of the application program A. However, if the operation right is transmitted, then only a user of the application program to which the operation right is transmitted can thereafter perform an operation.
For the transmission control of the operation right here, for example, such operation right transmission control methods as illustrated in FIGS. 15 and 16 are used.
In the conventional operation right transmission control method illustrated in FIG. 15, a user of an application program 24 who does not have an operation right requests the application program 24 for the operation right, and an operation right acquisition request is sent from the application program 24 which requests for the operation right to an application program 14 which currently has the operation right. Then, the application program 14 which has received the operation right acquisition request and has the operation right abandons the operation right and sends an operation right acquisition response to the application program 24 which has requested for the operation right. Consequently, the operation right is transmitted to the application program 24 which has received the operation right acquisition response.
On the other hand, in the conventional operation right transmission control method illustrated in FIG. 16, an application program 14 which has an operation right designates another application program (in the case illustrated in FIG. 16, an application program 24) which is to subsequently acquire the operation right, and abandons the operation right and sends an operation right abandonment notification to the application program which is to subsequently acquire the operation right. Consequently, the operation right is transmitted to the application program which has received the operation right abandonment notification.
It is to be noted that, in both of the conventional operation right transmission control methods described above with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16, shared application programs are controlled individually, and even where a plurality of shared application programs are involved, transmission control of an operation right is performed independently among the individual shared application programs.
In this manner, in the conventional operation right transmission control methods described above, even where users effect a cooperative work using a plurality of application programs shared by them, the operation rights of the individual shared application programs are individually controlled by the respective shared application programs. Therefore, it sometimes occurs that the operation rights corresponding to the individual shared application programs are possessed by the application programs on different terminals from each other in such a manner that, as illustrated, for example, in FIG. 17, the operation right of a shared application program A is possessed by an application program A 11 on a terminal 1 while the operation right of another shared application program B is possessed by another application program B 22 on another terminal 2. In such an instance, different users operate the application programs, which may cause confusion in working.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an operation right interlinking method for shared application programs and a cooperative working method wherein, when a plurality of application programs are shared to effect a cooperative work, operation rights of the shared application programs are always possessed by a same terminal so that a work can be performed efficiently without an inconsistency.
In order to attain the object described above, according to the present invention, when a plurality of application programs are shared to effect a cooperative work, the operation rights of the shared application programs are controlled in an interlinking relationship with each other.
In particular, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an operation right interlinking method for use when a plurality of shared application programs cooperatively operate between a plurality of terminals to effect a cooperative work, wherein each of the plurality of shared application programs has an operation right, and operation right transmission information of a first one of the shared application programs is reported to a second one of the shared application programs to control transmission of the operation right of the second shared application program so that the operation rights of the first application program and the second application program may be interlinked with each other.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cooperative working method for shared application programs, comprising the steps of starting, on a plurality of terminals connected to each other via a network, a plurality of shared application programs which have individual operation rights having a high-low order relationship set therebetween and operate cooperatively with each other; and interlinking the operation right of a low-order one of the shared application programs with the operation right of a high-order one of the shared application programs in accordance with the operation right interlinking method as claimed in claim 1 to effect a cooperative work.
In the operation right interlinking method and the cooperative working method of the present invention, when a plurality of application programs are shared to effect a cooperative work, the operation rights of the different shared application programs are interlinked with each other so that the operation rights of the plurality of shared application programs may be present always on a same terminal to allow a single user to operate the plurality of shared application programs. Consequently, otherwise possible confusion in operation can be eliminated, and a work can be proceeded efficiency without any inconsistency.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements are denoted by like reference characters.